Many methods and devices have been disclosed to cool and heat beverages in drinking vessels. For cooling, the most common method is to place ice directly in the beverage. This approach suffers from the problem that the ice dilutes the beverage as it melts. Also the quality of the water used to make ice may also be a health concern, when the melted ice is consumed along with the beverage. The free-floating characteristic of ice may inconvenience drinkers, or users, attempting to avoid consumption of the ice along with the beverage. The ice can become a choking hazard when swallowed.
An alternate approach that has been disclosed is to wrap a cooling material around a drinking vessel. However, this distorts the exterior shape of the vessel and creates an inconvenience in handling the vessel. Also, there is usually a significant delay in obtaining a cold beverage because the cooling material is not in direct fluid contact, which slows down the heat transfer or absorption process.
Some devices have been disclosed for direct placement in a beverage where the device contains a heating or cooling material, such as ice, thus avoiding the problems of diluting the beverage and of introducing unsanitary fluid into the beverage. In most cases these are large devices designed to attach to pitchers of beverages either by resting against the wall of the pitcher or by the use of a clip. Others that may be suitable for inserting into a drinking vessel employ flexible material for holding the cooling material, which can thereby move around inside the vessel, with a clip to attach the device to the vessel.
The clips used in such devices are generally plastic clips that pivot around a point that connects to the unit containing the cooling material. The pivot point contacts the rim of the vessel with the clip extending down the side of the vessel to apply pressure to it and retain the unit near the side of the vessel. Such an approach has several drawbacks. For cost reasons, the clip is generally made of plastic and is thereby prone to breaking after many uses, particularly when used to attach the unit to a vessel with a rim that is thicker than it was designed for. They may also be unable to provide a secure connection to a variety of rim thicknesses. They also extend down the outside side of the glass for a sufficient distance that the person using the vessel may contact the clip while using the vessel. Also the position of the unit inside the vessel relative to the side of the vessel cannot be controlled by the user.